Rumford woman sentenced to nine months in stabbing case

PARIS — A Rumford woman was sentenced Tuesday morning in Oxford County Superior Court to four years in prison, with all but nine months suspended, for stabbing a woman three times during a brawl last summer in Rumford.

Tiana Crossley, 35, was initially charged with Class A elevated aggravated assault, but in plea deal with the state the charge was dismissed and she pleaded guilty to Class B aggravated assault.

Conviction on a Class A felony is punishable by up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000, while a Class B felony is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and up to a $20,000 fine.

Active-Retired Justice Robert Clifford ordered that Crossley serve three years probation and have no contact with Michelle Benavidez, 35, who was stabbed.

Assistant District Attorney Richard Beauchesne said Benavidez wrote a letter to the court expressing her disapproval of the prison sentence.

If the case had gone to trial, Beauchesne said Rumford police officers would have testified that they responded to report of a stabbing and found Benavidez had been knifed three times by Crossley in July 2017.

After Crossley and her boyfriend, Robert St. Felix, were arrested, St. Felix admitted to police that he saw Crossley stab Benavidez and helped Crossley “get away from the scene and get rid of the knife,” Beauchesne said.

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